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Mortaza Behboudi fled Afghanistan, where exercising his job as a journalist had become dangerous. After having lived long weeks in the streets of Paris, and after being hosted by the House of Journalists, he is today one of the founders of the website Guiti News, which aims to work together French journalists and refugees, to allow " another look at exile ".
Mortaza Behboudi is only 24 years old, but he grew up fast. The young man is one of six co-founders of Guiti News, an information site that federates French and refugee journalists, to " take a double look at the news " and " deal with the phenomenon of immigration otherwise ". When he arrives at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in May 2015, the young man does not know a word of French, but he already speaks the language of war and exile. It was in Iran that Mortaza spent his childhood, where his parents had taken refuge in 1996, after the Taliban took Kabul, and he was forced to flee his country at the age of 16. host for having documented in images the popular uprising that erupted after the 2009 presidential elections. Back in Afghanistan, he attended university, but it is in the newsrooms of some independent media in the process of to assemble that he spends most of his time. Mortaza will be a journalist.
" When I arrived in Paris, I spent more than two months in the streets, walking aimlessly, finding places to sleep, at Gare du Nord or Gare de l'Est. I was in a very difficult situation, but at the same time I had the feeling of great freedom that I could do my job here, "he explains. In Afghanistan, Mortaza investigates sensitive topics, such as opium trafficking, and regularly covers the war in Iraq and the attacks in Kabul, particularly during the 2014 presidential campaign. In the spring of 2015, the vice is tightening, Threats become more precise. The journalist is eventually abducted by gunmen in the Wardak area. " I thought my last hour had arrived, I said I was a student trying to escape death, " he says . " They found a camera in my bag, but I was lucky to know a negotiator who worked with these groups and was able to get me released. Back in Kabul, I explained my situation to the French Embassy, which granted me a visa .
After long weeks of wandering, Mortaza is finally collected by the House of Journalists in Paris, where French classes are given to newcomers. " I was thirsty to discover French society, I had no papers, but I tried to work as I could, " says the young man. " With my Afghan journalist card, I managed to get accredited at the COP21, or at the Quai d'Orsay, and I started to make left-handed runs, especially during the attacks in Brussels . In 2016, Mortaza resumed studies at the Sorbonne, but was desperate to see fellow journalists, refugees like him, plunge into restaurants to try to survive. " Last summer, an idea came up, as we were chatting with a few friends: creating our own job, building a media that uses our skills and makes editorial sense ."
The Guiti News team is now composed of young French journalists working in the field with confirmed professionals who have fled Cameroon, Pakistan, Syria or Chad. Each week are offered video reports, photos, articles, and drawings dealing with the hexagonal news and the migratory phenomenon. " We want to show that immigration is a chance for a country like France and we want to use our experience to organize workshops where we will explain the need to fight for free and independent media ," continues Mortaza. After collecting the few thousand euros needed to launch the project through crowdfunding, Guiti News journalists will offer paid subscriptions next summer, in order to last in time. " The newspaper should allow to welcome foreign journalists who will arrive in France in the months and years to come and who will want to continue to practice their profession in their new country ".